Social Affairs

Number of homeless male asylum seekers rises to 1,399

Number has increased by more than 70 since Tuesday

Asylum seekers' tents near the International Protection Office in Dublin. Photograph: Alan Betson

Kitty Holland
Fri Mar 22 2024 - 17:40

The number of homeless male asylum seekers has increased by more than 70 since Tuesday, to 1,399, according to latest figures.

The data, from the Department of Children published on Friday, compares with 1,323 male asylum seekers “awaiting offer of accommodation” three days ago when figures were last updated.

Since December 4th when the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) announced it could no longer offer accommodation to male asylum seekers, 2,002 “eligible male” applicants have sought asylum.

On Tuesday the figure was 1,915, indicating 87 single males have applied for asylum since. Just three have been offered accommodation in the three intervening days.

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Since December a total of 213 have been accommodated following a “vulnerability triage” and 390 have been “subsequently offered accommodation” after being told there was none.

Included in the data for those awaiting accommodation are the 130 men who last weekend were bussed from a makeshift camp that had grown around the headquarters of the International Protection Office (IPO) in central Dublin.

The men were moved early on Saturday morning, following growing pressure on the department amid outbreaks of scabies at the site where up to 200 men had been sleeping rough, to emergency shelter in the Dublin mountains. They were offered tents to pitch on the grounds of a disused nursing home, owned by the Health Service Executive, in Crooksling, Saggart.

About 14 of the men left the Crooksling site and returned to the IPO offices on Mount Street Lower, saying the Saggart site was very cold and describing it as “miserable”.

[ Security guard at asylum seeker accommodation suspended after alleged assault on resident ]

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Despite concerns the men were moved to “clear the area” of tents in advances of an international rugby game in nearby Lansdowne Road on Saturday and the St Patrick’s Day events on Sunday the department insisted the steps had been taken due to concerns about the men’s health and welfare.

Since the weekend, as more men apply for asylum, the number of tents at Mount Street has continued to increase.

On Friday more than 50 tents could be counted on the footpaths and lanes around Grattan Court and Grattan Street. This compares with up to 35 last Sunday.

Among the new arrivals is Ahmed, from Khan Younis city in Palestine, who arrived on Monday. He said he left Gaza last September with several others.

They each paid €1,700 to a “gang” who “give us fake passport. It is not our picture [on the passport]. It is one similar to us.

“The fake passport, there is a guy in Dublin Airport was waiting for us when we come out of the plane he took everything from us. This is the deal. That is how it works,” he said. They had travelled, he said “from Athens to Istanbul and on to [Ireland]”.

When they arrived they came straight to the IPO because “people on the street [at the airport] tell us”. On Tuesday they presented to apply for asylum.

“They say they have no accommodation, just for a while they say. I used to be like this in Gaza, living in tents. It’s OK the tent. I don’t mind but it’s too cold and our things, our bags and luggage. Here is not safe.”

He and others said there had been incidents in the past week involving people threatening to burn the tents. They show a video taken on Thursday evening of a man walking through the area and saying: “I’ll burn the f**king lot of yous out.”

Another Palestinian, also here since Monday, said: “They came at 5pm and threatened everyone that he would burn the tents. Yes I am scared. And it is very cold here. There is no shelter.”

An Afghan man, aged 22, said he had been here three weeks. “I left [Afghanistan] because terrorists come to our country. The situation here is better but is very difficult right now. Sometimes cold. Sometimes raining. I wish one day will be better.”

Gardaí are present at the IPO on an ongoing basis.

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland is Social Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times

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